I wanted to share my process for finishing one of my folding leaf rear sights. The first photo illustrates the sight as sold, with the faint machine marks and over length pin. In contrast is the sight I am installing on a Jaeger being finished now. This sight is polished and heat blued (550 F).
The second photo has the tools used to polish. I use the brass block with 320 grit paper to sand all of the flat surfaces on the sight and leaf. This is best done with the leaf removed. The finial with its curving profile requires a somewhat rounded profile abrasive. I elected to use a ceramic stone seen in the blue handle. I can shape the stone to the desired profile and a belt sander. This ceramic stone will remove the milling marks and leave a somewhat frosted surface. To get the final surface on the finial, I used a very fine grit honing stone with mineral oil lubricate. As mentioned earlier, I heat blued this at 550 degrees F. A few of my originals have Gold plated rear sights, flashy, but not to practical.
